Sonic S: The Beginning
by Virtus the Protector
Summary: AU: When South Island is taken over by Dr. Robotnik, only one blue hedgehog can set things right. Sonic 1 adaptions. Chapter 11: Epilogue
1. Prologue

** strong ****Sonic S: The Beginning**** /strong **

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission from the two later_.

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** strong Prologue /strong **

The No Zone, one of an infinite number of alternate realities surrounding the cosmic strings that held together the very fabric of existence. One of very similar histories repeated over and over again, but not necessarily exact replicas.

The No Zone, however, was one of a kind.

Sharing the universal tale with many other timelines following their own, the No Zone's inhabitants had improved their technology beyond the limits of other worlds, advancing enough to learn how to control the time/space rifts between the infinite realities in order to cross over into the different realms.

With this power, the inhabitants had decided to maintain order in all existing realities, dealing with cosmic treats and alike. And if the threats grew to strong for them alone, they could always call for help from all corners of existence.

-----

It was a quiet morning, or whatever you'd like to call the space that surrounded a random headquarters floating around in the No Zone.

Inside, however the situation was highly different. A high-pitched alarm blared throughout the corridors around the station, and red lights flashed on and off in all rooms. In one of these rooms, a certain hedgehog's beauty sleep had been harshly interrupted.

"_Another day, another pair of sacks under the eyes."_ The hedgehog half-thought, half-mumbled and quickly jumped out of his azure coloured bed, which matched the blue quills he smoothed back with his hand.

-----

Now you might say "hold the phone."

"There's only one true blue dude who fits in on that description, and that's none other than Sonic the Hedgehog."

But the blue hedgehog was not Sonic, but Zonic the Zone Cop, one of the No Zone's elite soldiers, a vastly different version of Sonic, both in personality and powers.

-----

The blue hedgehog quickly proceeded by pulling on a red form-fitting sweater and pants, which he closed around his slim waist with a yellow metallic belt. His hands were within split seconds resting inside blue gloves, just like his feet were resting inside yellow boots, armoured with green metal plates. After that he put what looked like a strange yellow cross between a collar and shoulder pads, with his Zone Cop badge attached to its left chest-plate. Last but not least, he picked up a yellow and green helmet with a dark purple visor and two red antennas, put it down over his head and made sure that none of his quills were peaking out of the strange headgear.

With everything in order the heroic Zone Cop was ready to save the whole existence from a new crisis, as he ran down the halls of his headquarters.

---

"You are hereby under arrest for dimensional trespassing!" A heavily built Zone Cop said, while pointing his gun at the unknown newcomer to the No Zone.

The stranger, a humanoid figure dressed in black, red and white tights, didn't seem to be too happy to have a gun pointed at his head. The blue irises, within the eyes with red V-like markings around the corners, shot ice-cold stares that passed right through the Zone Cop's visor into his own eyes, causing him to take a new grip on his gun.

"I fail to see the reason to put me under arrest." He said, while clenching his white-gloved fists tightly.

"I could always repeat the rule book…" The guard said, holding the trigger to his gun without squeezing it.

"That won't be necessary." A voice was heard.

The two opponents looked up to see Zonic floating upside down over their heads due to the different laws of physics in the No Zone. The hedgehog's armoured head tilted to its side, giving an expression of surprise despite the metal that hid his face.

"Virtus?" Zonic said to the black stranger.

The mysterious human lifted his head and smirked.

"It's been a while, Zonic."

-----

Back in Zonic's headquarters, the two very different individuals were catching up on old times.

"So, what brings you to this part of existence?" Zonic said as he led Virtus deeper into his base of operations.

"Things have been going a bit slowly on Earth-Alpha during my summer vacation, so I decided to visit some old friends." Virtus explained.

"You mean the eight Sonics that are part of a variety of fictional media in your world, such as me and Sonic-Prime being comic book characters?" Zonic said.

"Even though I prefer to refer to him as Archie Sonic in my world, your guess is correct." Virtus confirmed.

"So what are you doing here then?" Zonic asked.

"You already know that I can travel through time and space to a limited extent, but it sure takes the juice out of me to get to the right place. So I was wondering if I could hitch a ride with you. You're not as fast as me, but your aiming is definitely better." Virtus explained further.

"Well…" Zonic rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"It goes against the Zone Cop code, but I guess I could negotiate with the high council about it. After all, you have been a great help in the past." Zonic explained.

"Okay. Then I guess I'll return to my dimension to await your answer." Virtus said, and got into a sprinting stance. But before he could return to his world, Zonic had grabbed his arm.

"Just because we Zone Cops have strict rules about zone hopping, it doesn't mean that we can't take in a few guests now and then." Zonic said.

"Oh, but I don't want to take advantage of your hospitality..." Virtus replied.

"Nonsense." Zonic reassured.

"Until we've worked it out with the council, you're my guest."

-----

Virtus had seen many strange things in his eventful life, but the guest room that Zonic had prepared was really something to get wideeyed about.

Along the walls were about a hundred of computer screens stashed up, all of them depicting a different version of Sonic the Hedgehog. No interior decor was present, except a bed and a small desk with drawers.

"It's not much, but…" Zonic began, but was interrupted by Virtus.

"It's perfect the way it is." Virtus reassured Zonic.

"Well, make yourself at home." Zonic said and then exited the room. Virtus was left studying the different versions of the blue hedgehog that he had worked alongside more than once in the past. He noticed a small round handle which was located under every screen in the room.

He twisted the handle curiously, and the image on the screen flashed to another image. The colours seemed to have been reversed, reminding him of a photo negative. He watched a yellow Sonic run around in icy-blue sneakers over a field of purple grass, and it was definitely not Super Sonic trying on a new fashion trend. But Virtus's eyes caught sight of a few digits in the lower left corner of the screen that spelled "Mobius-0. "

"_Well, I'll be…"_ Virtus thought.

"_So there even is a world where the sky is red and the grass is purple…"_

Virtus smirked a bit, and pushed his clenched fist against the screen.

"In blackest day, in whitest night…" He chuckled a little, and then withdrew his hand.

"_That's enough corny jokes for one day, Virtus."_ Virtus thought for himself. Suddenly, something sparkled in the corner of his eye.

"Huh?" Virtus exclaimed, and turned around towards the direction of the movement. There was nothing there, except for the shabby desk that he hadn't given a thought earlier.

There it was again. A little spark of light, almost unnoticeable, but strong enough to catch his attention. The light emitted from the top drawer of the desk, pulling the curious Virtus's hands closer to it. He carefully opened the drawer, wishing to reveal what was hidden inside.

There was almost nothing in the drawer, except for one tiny object that caught his eye.

There, in the corner of the drawer, was a little crystallic orb. Virtus took the small glass ball into his hand, studying it further. It easily fit into his palm, yet too big for him to close his fingers fully around. The interesting part of the orb was the fact that it seemed hollow, yet not transparent like a glass of water. Instead, the center of the ball was black like a winter night, no matter from which angle he looked at the mysterious orb as he rolled it in his hand.

"_I wonder if Zonic can explain what this… _Yeowch!" Virtus thought, but then gasped upon feeling a sharp, yet quick and subduing pain in his index finger. His eyes returned to the hand that was holding the strange object, and saw blood dripping from the index finger. The reason for the puncturing seemed to be the sharp edge of a hole that he had missed in the otherwise perfect orb. Virtus's hyperfast metabolism healed the wound in a matter of seconds as he put back the ball into the drawer and closed it.

"_I wonder what such a strange object is doing in a regular desk drawer."_ Virtus wondered.

He shrugged his shoulders and then walked towards the bed, unaware about the events transpiring in the globe hidden in the drawer.

A little, almost microscopic drop of Virtus's blood, dripped into the black nothingness inside of the orb through the hole he had cut himself on, disappearing into the darkness, setting off different chain reactions...

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	2. Chapter 01: A Paradise Lost

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by __Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of __Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission from the two later_.

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**Chapter 01****: A Paradise Lost**

In all of existence, within an infinite number of alternate realities, in millions of galaxies, out of billions of planets with hundreds of landmasses, there were few that could compete with the lush greenery of South Island.

South Island was a perfect mixture of forests, beaches, ancient castles, amusement parks, jungles, just you name it. A paradise out in the ocean, where the wildlife was almost untouched by outside forces.

The peaceful inhabitants of South Island, small harmless animals of different species, was split up in seven basic groups that each roamed specific territories of the large island.

The Flickies were birdlike beings that roamed the skies of South Island, only touching ground for three things: Eating, sleeping and laying eggs. Since they could easily travel great distances by flight, they were more wide-spread than any other species on the whole island, but seemed to stick around the borders of Green Hill, an amazing kind of beach forest with checkered hillsides and crystal clear water.

The Kuckies were another type of chicken-like birds, who unlike the Flickies was earthbound due to their short wingspans. They were just as spread out as their flying counterparts, but not as much in the air as in the Jungle Zone for obvious reasons.

The Peckies were penguin-like and not so fast birds with a yellow bush of hair on the top off their heads. To survive in the mostly mild weather on South Island, they had evolved and adapted to the warm climate, but still enjoyed the cold waters of the aquatic underground caverns, all connected to a cave system collectively named Labyrinth Zone.

The Pickies were little pigs that strived around within the borders of the island, enjoying the freedom they shared with the other species on the exotic landmass. Due to them generally being clumsy little creatures and not exactly swimming athletes, they had constructed a whole system of bridges around a small part of Green Hill, which had grown so much that it had earned the title as a zone of its own, the Bridge Zone.

The Rickies were small chipmunks who lived in the trees surrounding the Marble Zone, a gigantic abandoned castle built on an extremely volcanic ground. Of course, the owners didn't know that when they moved in…

The Rockies were small walruses with similar habits to the Peckies, and as such shared their way of living in the Labyrinth Zone. The Peckies and the Rockies were prime examples off the South Island people's hospitality, sharing food and house to anyone that needed it.

The Pockies were little rabbits, known for being very shy and fast on their furry feet upon facing danger. Nevertheless, they were close friends to the Flickies, living in the Green Hill just like them.

Yes, all the groups were living peacefully in their paradise, careless and unaware about what happened in the outside world. However, all of that would soon come to an end.

-----

A strange airborne metallic half-orb shaped vehicle, unlike anything ever seen on South Island, descended towards the Green Hill Zone, attracting the attention of a tribe of Flickies nearby. Upon making a surprisingly silent landing, the pilot of the aircraft revealed himself.

It was a man with the odd shape off an egg, dressed in a strange outfit. It was hard to keep your attention on the strangers face, but if you could keep your gaze focused long enough, you would see a bushy moustache protruding from his upper lip, covering both mouth and cheeks, adding to the stranger's mysterious nature combined with the dark goggles. They egg body's clothing consisted of a pair of black pants with two white buttons in front that fit around the man's spherical lower body half almost perfectly. So was also the case for the red overcoat and its yellow collar.

The stranger stepped out off the vehicle and was immediately surrounded by the Flickies. While most of them kept their distance, one of them dared to fly closer to the egg-shaped man. The stranger lifted his hand, seemingly to greet the brave bird.

In fact, he was just distracting the crowd, while his other hand reached behind him to push a button on his strange aircraft. Upon activation, a majority of slots opened in the bizarre vehicle opened to reveal multiple pair of eyes that sent chills down the Flickies' spines. Suddenly, the eyes lunged forward to reveal dozens off bee-like robots, which attacked the scared birds upon being released, shooting large flashing projectiles at the Flickies.

But the robotic insects didn't have killing in mind. What they intended was a fate worse than death.

The bee robots released metallic tentacles from their torsos, trapping the poor birds that didn't manage to escape and reeling them in. The Flickies fought to no avail, and were encased into the robots, pounding on the inside walls with loud bangs. But the mechanical bees didn't care about the noise as they were lining up in a circle around the vicious stranger.

"ORGANIC-BATTERY-ACQUIRED." The robot bees said in unison with monotone voices.

The stranger put his hands together and a smirk grew beneath the brown moustache.

"Good work, my dear Buzzbombers. Now commence with your prime directive." The stranger ordered.

"AFFIRMATIVE-DOCTOR-EGGMAN." The Buzzbombers replied.

And the doctor's orders were immediately obeyed by the Buzzbombers.

-----

_**One month later…**_

Another frequent visitor of the South Island had just arrived. A blue hedgehog with a pair off red sneakers with white straps ran along the coast off the island. Nothing unusual about that.

Except that the hedgehog was moving at a speed unattainable for most off South Island's inhabitants. His feet moved with the speed of a train piston and the hedgehog became a blue blur as he dashed into the forest that separated the beach from the Green Hill Zone, unaware of what had transpired on South Island during the last month.

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The hedgehog could only gape at what he saw. Instead off finding any Flickies, Kuckies, Peckies, Pickies, Rickies, Rockies or even Pockies in the forest, he found it being patrolled by a wide array of strange animalistic robots.

And they didn't seem too friendly.

A pair of beetle robots attacked the blue hedgehog, but the mammal had some tricks up his sleeve. The hedgehog proved to be extremely agile and easily leaped and flipped over the two robots. Still in mid-air, he curled into a spiky spinning ball and bounced onto the surprised robots. The hedgehog's spikes cut through the bug robots' armour easily and the two metallic insects exploded in small bursts off fire before the hedgehog had touched the ground.

The blue hedgehog was about to dash deeper into the forest, but then heard weak coughing coming from the remains off the beetle robots. He quickly rushed to the debris and lifted off some scrap metal. There, in the middle off the debris were two Pickies, covered in oil. They slowly crawled out of the pile of metal and then crawled onto their knees towards the hedgehog's legs, looking up with their gazes into his eyes. Their eyes had shown nothing but fear when they had emerged from the heap of scrap metal, but when they saw what obviously was a familiar face on the hedgehog, a flash off hope rekindled in their irises.

"Sonic… You're back!"

-----

When the two pigs had cleaned themselves up in a nearby lake, one of them began explaining the situation to Sonic, who was resting his back against a tree.

"When I was trapped in the Motobug as a living battery, I could hear everything about their plans through the robots com-link."

"Any chance that you know who's behind this?" Sonic replied.

"Yes, he calls himself Dr. Robotnik. From what I've heard, he's out after some kind off gems called Chaos Emeralds." The Picky explained further.

"Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic said.

"Gems that as legend says contains almost infinite power. With that much power you could easily perform miracles, but in the wrong hands…"

He didn't get to say more, as the blue hedgehog known as Sonic was already gone.

-----

"Dig deeper!" Robotnik's voice thundered throughout the forest.

"I want you to rip up every tree and turn around every single stone in the whole forest until you've found the Chaos Emeralds!"

The mad scientist floated over his minions as they followed his orders literally.

Except for one, a Buzzbomber, who flew up to the doctor's aircraft. Upon discovering that one off his lackeys wasn't working, he snapped at the robot.

"Get back to work!"

"BUT-DR. ROBOTNIK." Buzzbomber began.

"WE-HAVE-SOME-SLIGHT-DISTURBANCE-IN-THE-GREEN-HILL-ZONE."

"Disturbance? Can't my robots take care off those pathetic animals themselves?" Robotnik complained.

"THIS-ONE-IS-DIFFERENT." The Buzzbomber simply said.

"Different?" Eggman said and watched a screen in his aircraft.

"There seems to be something wrong with the radar. All I can see is blue dots jumping up and down." The doctor admitted.

"ACTUALLY-THAT-IS-NOT-A-FLAW." The Buzzbomber said.

"Impossible! Nothing can be that fast!" Eggman said, put his vehicle into full speed and left the robotic bee behind.

"Whoever it is, he will mourn the day that he decided to cross the path of Dr. Robotnik!"

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**Author's Notes: **Not much dialogue in this story, but then again, they didn't have it in the first Sonic games. But since it would become a very boring story without it, next chapter will sound more like a proper fan-fic. Or should I keep writing with less words and more action? That would certainly give you the feel of the old Sonic games back. Please comment, but no flames!


	3. Chapter 02: Green Hill

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by __Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of __Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission from the two later_.

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 02: Green Hill**

_**Act I**_

(THEME: Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1)

The rapid hedgehog ran between the palm trees too fast to enjoy the scenery, not knowing or minding what a chaos emerald looked like, just determined to find it before the new menace to South Island could.

A line of magical golden rings, lifesavers for anyone that carried them, appeared above his head and he leaped into the air, collecting the golden objects, figuring that it would come in handy. His suspicions were confirmed in the first wave of enemies that approached him.

-----

Motobug, Buzzbomber, Crabmeat and two Newtrons, one of the blue kind and one of the green, awaited the running threat to their master's plans. But not even their advanced sensors could prepare them for the hedgehog's extremely rapid frontal attack that moved faster than the human eye could track.

Sonic rolled himself into a spiky ball once again and slashed through Motobug and Crabmeat in the same swipe, cutting them open and releasing two Pockies in the process. Before they could express their gratitude however, the remaining robots opened fire at the rabbits' saviour.

But after a quick hit that caused the hedgehog to lose all rings he carried, Sonic simply shrugged the blast off and ripped the wings off the Buzzbomber, sending it on a crash landing that freed the Flicky inside once it hit the ground.

The blue Newtron dashed against Sonic like a missile, while the green one acted more on defence and shot one single useless laser beam at the hedgehog, before disappearing to unknown whereabouts using its camouflage.

Sonic leaped into the air and bounced onto the Newtron that passed under him, releasing yet another Flicky from its robot prison. With no more enemies to defeat, the blue hedgehog was after a few quick questions heading for what he thought were a cave that had been newly discovered. Actually, it was a tunnel dug up by Robotnik's robots in search of the chaos emeralds.

_**Act II**_

Sonic ran through the newly established mine in the Green Hill's underground. One good thing, he thought, was the electric lights that the robots had installed. It made much easier not to slam straight into a wall at the speed he was going. He threw a few glances to the sides of the tunnel, but no sign of any robots were present. He shrugged it off and continued his sprint down the underground cave.

-----

As Sonic blasted through the mine over a wooden bridge, his eye suddenly caught sight off something glowing in the corner of his eye. He screeched to a halt, and then ran back a few ten meters to find what had caught his attention.

There, lodged into the wall, was a very tiny, but still shining brightly, green gemstone. Could it be one of the chaos emeralds the doctor was looking for? Sonic put his hand around the emerald and pried it out off the rock, and then examined it closely. Wasn't it a bit small for something that powerful? But the gem pulsated waves of incredible energy right into his arm through the palm of his hand, and he was somehow convinced that it really was the chaos emerald.

Sonic was so entranced by the magical gem, that he didn't see what was happening under the bridge he was standing on.

Suddenly, planks and pieces of wood flew through the air, as the bridge was chewed into firewood by three piranha-like robots that caught the blue hedgehog off guard. While a few swift kicks still could make the process short with the mechanical fishes and release the animals within, the bridge was gone. And since hedgehogs weren't born with wings, Sonic could only fall and get flushed down the underground water stream.

_**Act III**_

The waterfall released Sonic into the open and the blue hedgehog found himself at the end off the Green Hill Zone and the beginning off the Bridge Zone. Sonic figured that with no chaos emerald left to find in the Green Hill Zone for Robotnik, the mad scientist would probably move on to the next zone.

But his problems in the Green Hill Zone were far from over.

-----

According to the instructions from the green Newtron, the blue hedgehog that was foiling his glorious plans was running around somewhere in the surroundings of his newly established chaos emerald mine. A lot of work for one single gemstone, but the free unwilling animal workers was a benefit.

There he was. That pesky little hedgehog. Robotnik was about to call on all off his remaining robots, but suddenly he saw something that made him hold back on alarming his troops. The object that had caught his attention was a small green gemstone that rested in the hand off the blue hedgehog, glowing brightly.

A quick glance at his monitor's energy reading diagrams going off the charts confirmed that the green gem was the very object that he had come to this pathetic island for in the first place. The legendary chaos emerald. Robotnik snickered and could hardly hold his anticipation in as he pressed a button in his aircraft that activated his favourite weapon.

-----

Sonic reacted just in time to avoid the giant boulder as it slammed into the ground where he was standing a second earlier. He looked up to find the source of the round checkered stone at the end of a thick chain, which was none other than the big troublemaker himself, whose egg-shape resided in his half-orb shaped flying vehicle.

"_Robotnik…" _Sonic thought upon facing the doctor for the first time.

"_What an eggman__!"_ He smirked and got ready for the obese doctor's challenge.

Sonic jumped to a higher platform and then threw himself against the cockpit of Robotnik's aircraft, rolling into a spiky ball in the process. The heavier built vehicle didn't budge as easily as the little robots had, but the blue hedgehog's attack had left a mark as he bounced back to the platform he started on.

"_Why you…!" _Robotnik angrily thought and pulled the deadly pendulum out off the ground to mash the irritating hedgehog into a blue, spiky pancake. Sonic easily dodged the boulder, and delivered another blow to the cargo while he was at it.

This process repeated itself a few times. Robotnik would throw his pendulum at the quick hedgehog, and Sonic would prove fast enough, not only to avoid the pendulum, but also to throw a kick or two at the now badly damaged aircraft.

After four more kicks, Robotnik's flying vehicle began to shake uncontrollably while spouting smoke, fire and oil. The pendulum detached itself from the aircraft and cracked into a million pieces. The humiliated doctor mumbled some words at the cursed hedgehog before blasting off on a shaky ride.

The hedgehog looked after Robotnik proudly for a few seconds, and then headed for the Bridge Zone to settle the score there as well.

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**Author's Notes:**

To N. Harmonik: With your comments in mind, all badniks now have their American names. (That includes earlier chapters.)

Please comment, but no flames!


	4. Chapter 03: Bridge Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus__ the Protector_

_Starrin__g characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission from the two later_.

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 03: Bridge Zone**

(THEME: Bridge Zone from Sonic 1, 8-bit)

_**Act I**_

Sonic jumped from hilltop to wooden bridge and back to hilltop as he smashed robots into oblivion from left to right. The diamond meshed hillsides and bridges were soon running black from the oil of the destroyed bodies of Yadorins, Buzzbombers, and Jaws, releasing the Kuckies and Pickies trapped inside.

After some interrogation about the robots' orders from the victims, Sonic was directed to go deeper into the zone to find the second chaos emerald.

The hedgehog suddenly found himself by a deep gap that was too wide for him to jump over, and there were no bridges anywhere. The only thing that caught his eye was something that looked like a high flagpole with two metallic discs surrounding it, floating around it at the exact same height. One of the discs was carrying something that looked like a large weight, but Sonic didn't care to examine it further.

As it seemed to be the only way over, the blue hedgehog took a few steps back and jumped off the edge of the cliff to land on the disc without a weight. The floating device lowered a few feet at the sudden extra weight, but it seemed to keep itself in the air. The young hedgehog cast a glance at the other platform with the heavy weight.

Only to find that the weight had disappeared.

The hedgehog lifted his left eye brow in confusion. A heavy weight like that doesn't just vanish.

Now, if Sonic had been a scientific genius like Dr. Robotnik, he would have understood that the strange device was a sligthly misplaced weighing scale to decide which minerals that could be the slightly lighter chaos emeralds and not just ordinary crystals, gem by gem. And by jumping at the other end of the scale, Sonic had catapulted the metallic block into the air.

And what goes up must come down.

The heavy metal piece slammed down onto the opposite side to Sonic of the scale, reversing the catapult effect so that the blue hedgehog was thrown high into the air. Sonic was more excited than surprised, feeling rush of adrenaline pumping through his body at his unplanned stunt trick.

"_I have no idea what this thing is, but they'll sure comer in handy." _Sonic thought as he crossed the rift through the air, and as soon as the blue hedgehog touched ground, he took of to continue his quest to free South Island from Dr. Robotnik's control.

-----

The blue hedgehog found a lack of robots deeper into the zone, which wasn't to comforting. Could it be possible that the rapid hedgehog had been outrun by an egg-shaped man in a clunky aircraft? At least it left him free to collect more rings for protection as he ran through the zone.

The hedgehog would to his relief soon, but accidentally, find out that there was no need to worry.

-----

As already mentioned, the hills were dripping of large portions of thick, black oil everywhere as the blue hedgehog trashed the mischievous Robotnik's robots as they followed their creator's orders to stop any intruders if they could threaten his plans. But who would have known that even though the loyal robot servants' futile efforts would prove useless, their failure would lead to an unexpected stop for the young hedgehog?

-----

Oil.

Different kinds of both organic and synthetic nonpolar liquid substances used for cooking, lubrication to reduce friction, and painting just to name a few. Also, by extracting a substance called petroleum out of the synthetic variety of the liquid, you could get a powerful, but pollutant fuel to power your carbon based motors.

But since Robotnik's robots drew power from the unfortunate animals trapped inside their metallic bodies, the oil that spluttered out of the robots as Sonic cracked them open like tin cans was more of the slippery lubrication kind, and for someone with sneakers like Sonic's, it would be a nightmare to get them clean again at the end off the day.

But cleaning issues was the last thing on Sonic's mind, as his slippery red-turned-black sneakers made it harder and harder for the young hedgehog to control his path through the Bridge Zone.

"_I better slow down a bit, or I might __fall off the hill."_

But the hedgehog's feet didn't agree with his brain, as he the oil under his soles made him unable to slow down. Soon, he was spinning out of control, flapping legs and arms wildly. His eyes suddenly went wide at something in front of him, and for the moment, he could do nothing to avoid it.

"_Uh__ oh…"_

The danger was actually nothing more than that Sonic ran out of road and fell of the edge of the hilltop, bouncing down to a lower hilltop. While this humoristic scene took place, another squadron of Robotnik's robots appeared in large numbers to deal with the blue menace, circling the higher level he just had fallen from.

"DIDN'T-ROBOTNIK-SAY-THAT-THE-HEDGEHOG-WAS -IN-THE-BRIDGE-ZONE?" A Buzzbomber questioned.

If they could have seen what was going on below them, they would probably have laughed their screws loose upon what they saw.

There, the young blue hedgehog was lying flat on his stomach, knocked out like the wine bottles on the bar disk next to an alcoholic. The usually agile blue hedgehog had landed straight on his head and beaten himself unconscious in the fall.

"NO-HEDGEHOGS-PRESENT. PROCEEDING-TO-NEXT-SECTOR." A Yadorin messaged his master Robotnik, and the robotic horde continued their pursuit of Sonic.

And the robots didn't even know that the chance for a promotion had missed them by a few centimetres.

Meanwhile, the blue hedgehog slowly regained his consciousness. Sonic sat up and rubbed his aching forehead.

"_Oh my head... " _His thoughts banged through a barrier of pain in his brain.

When the multi-coloured dots in front of his eyes had cleared, one small yellow dot remained, unwilling to let go of the hedgehog's sight.

It was the second chaos emerald, close enough to pick up for Sonic.

Soon, the blue hedgehog was twirling the gemstone between his fingers, still rubbing his sore head.

"_Of all the dumb luck…"_ Sonic cursed silently.

-----

_**Act II**_

"_NO-__HEDGEHOGS-PRESENT. PROCEEDING-TO-NEXT-SECTOR."_ Yadorin's voice crackled in the speaker.

Dr. Robotnik was growing impatient. How long time could it possibly take to find a blue hedgehog?

Here he was, sitting in his aircraft inside an even larger submarine of his own design, looking for chaos emeralds in the ocean below the Bridge Zone, while his robot troops patrolled the land and occasionally the sky. You couldn't be too thorough with a hedgehog like Sonic at your tail.

The doctor didn't take defeat easily, and this hedgehog had beaten him and his fine aircraft with humiliating easiness. But now, with his heavily armed submarine at his hands, he would soon get his revenge on the blue creep.

-----

_**Act III**_

Sonic found himself at the lowest ground level in Bridge Zone, the platforms floating in the ocean. It was the fastest way, at least for Sonic, to get to the Marble Zone from. But the hedgehog would have to deal with a minor nuisance first.

Dr. Robotnik's submarine arose from the depths of the Bridge Zone, like a sea monster from those horror flicks. And through the front window, the face of Dr. Robotnik snickered as he pushed a button that activated the aquatic vehicles weapons.

Three sparks of purple glowing energy headed for Sonic, who simply dodged them by jumping into the air and curling into a spiky ball once again, bouncing of the top of the cockpit so the metal creaked slightly.

Sonic jumped of and landed on a platform on the other side of the submarine, which turned around and repeated the same attack pattern against the blue hedgehog. Sonic sighed, knowing that even though the machine wouldn't be much of a challenge, he would most certainly get bored to death.

-----

_**Ten minutes later…**_

"_How did that hedgehog know that the cockpit was the only weak spot?"_Robotnik angrily thought as he spluttered some water out of his mouth while his not so water-proof escape aircraft leaked like a colander.

This new defeat only fuelled Robotnik's desire to find the chaos emeralds and rule the world even more, and his vehicle blasted away upon command towards the Marble Zone.

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**Author's notes:**

Boring… Sorry that I'm a bit on the late side, but I've been in Greece for two weeks. Four chapters done, only ten more to go.

**To N. Harmonik** – I'm sorry that there's not much unpredictability, but what do you expect with only two main characters and six almost identical plot devices? XD

**To Blue Mage Quartet** – Yes, this alternate universe fic is based on chronology, but not just game chronology. When I get to 1993, I'll introduce characters from other continuities, such as Archie, Fleetway, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog etc.

And now for the begging routine: Please comment, but no flames!


	5. Chapter 04: Marble Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus__ the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, __Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission from the two later_.

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter 04: Marble**** Zone**

(THEME: Marble Zone from Sonic 1)

_**Act I**_

Soon, Sonic found himself at the entrance to the Marble Zone, and wiped some sweat of his forehead on the back of his hand. He put the same hand over his forehead to shadow his eyes from the sunlight. His gaze caught sight of another squadron of Robotnik's robot troops heading towards him up the road to the castle.

"_Time to heat things up a bit."_ Sonic thought and set off in a sprint towards his robotic opponents.

"_But I wonder if it actually can get any warmer in a place like this."_He jokingly added inside of his mind.

-----

The Marble Zone lived up to the rumours, as the never-decreasing lava flow caused small earthquakes by bursting up by pressure through the cracks between the rocky platforms, lowering and sinking them randomly.

Sonic jumped into his attack form as the spiky ball and cut through a Buzzbomber in mid-air, releasing the Ricky trapped inside and dumping the remains of the robotic wasp into the lava river.

Next, the hedgehog tried his luck at a new robot, called Caterkiller by Robotnik, but called scrap metal by Sonic. At least that was what the hedgehog thought until about two seconds after he had bounced onto and scattered the robotic worm's long body, and bounced back up with more spikes than usual in his behind, yelping in pain.

Caterkiller's head snickered at Sonic as the blue hedgehog plucked the spikes out one by one, letting out a small "ouch" for each one of them. Then, the slightly angered hedgehog turned his gaze back to the mechanical head and Caterkiller's snickering immediately stopped.

-----

The Caterkiller was then sailing through the air and slammed into a castle wall alongside all off his tail portions, letting out the Rocky from its metallic prison located in the head of the robot. Sonic, about fifteen feet away, with his arm extended in a position that indicated that the blue hedgehog had been the one that sent the robot on his aerial escape. The blue hedgehog retracted his arm and then dashed away, ready for anything that the Marble Zone could throw at him.

-----

At the end of a downhill, Sonic found a way into the terribly unfortunate castle, and headed deeper into the building's basement level. Upon running through one of the dangerous passageways below the Marble Zone's ground level, he was then faced by three other robots of the Robotnik brand. The bat-like creations, named Bat Brains, dropped from the ceiling to sink their robotic claws into the blue hedgehog's flesh.

But the hedgehog simply leaped into the spinning ball once again, and cracked the three batbots open in one single jump, releasing another set of Rickies from their entrapment.

-----

The young hedgehog screeched to a halt in a chamber that lead to what looked like a dead-end. He looked from side to side, up and down, but there was no way out to be seen, just a chain hanging down from the ceiling and attached to the floor and a random stone block that must've fallen from the ceiling. Sonic scratched the top of his head and turned around to find another route through the castle.

Suddenly the floor slowly sunk below his feet, and the sound of chains and mechanical gears clicking was heard throughout the chambers. The blue hedgehog turned around, and saw that a portion of the floor was rising slowly, revealing a small opening for the blue hedgehog to possibly slip through.

"_Well, what do you know…" _Sonic thought.

But when the blue hedgehog took a few steps forward to jump into the hole, the ascended portion of the floor suddenly slammed down in front of the hedgehog's feet. Sonic scratched himself on the top his head, wondering if the castle was playing tricks on him. He then let his fingers drum against his lower lip in the manner of a philosopher, and threw a glance over his shoulder towards the boulder lying around for no apparent reason.

"_Hmm… I wonder…"_

-----

_**Two minutes later…**_

Sonic dove down the vertical passageway, just a little bit to fast for the spike traps that erupted from the walls, piercing through everything, including the spikes that came from opposite directions.

Remembering the painful encounter with the Caterkiller, Sonic curled into his ball form to fall faster. As the sound of small needles clinked against the rock walls, his eyes caught sight of the bottom of the tunnel, and the blue hedgehog flipped to land on his feet.

As soon as he touched ground, Sonic dashed into the tunnels deep within the Marble Zone, only guided by the dim light of the lava flowing below the bridges. But now, he found himself at another dead end, quite deadlier than the last one.

It was a whole underground cavern filled with boiling lava, hot enough to melt the boulders dropping from the cavern's ceiling in a matter of seconds. Good thing that seconds was all that the blue hedgehog needed.

The agile hedgehog threw himself into the danger without hesitation, using his amazing sense of balance to find the quickest route over the half-molten rocks in the lava flow. When he had crossed the hazardous river, his sneakers' soles were a little burnt, but the blue hedgehog was nevertheless unharmed.

"_If I don't find that other chaos emerald anytime soon, someone's going to owe me a new pair of sneakers!"_

-----

_**Act II**_

In a cloud of smoke and spluttering lava, the blue spiky ball that was Sonic escaped from being devoured by a fiery inferno by bursting up from the ground and giving birth to a new volcano in the Marble Zone.

He spun out of his ball form and landed on a safe distance from the volcanic eruption on his knees with his hands gripping the grass while coughing up some ash from his sore throat.

"_As if it wasn't enough that almost __got cooked in a pot of boiling lava, there doesn't seem to be any chaos emeralds in this zone." _The blue hedgehog thought.

Sonic was only partially correct, as he would soon discover.

The hedgehog covered in ash lifted his head slowly, still with a slightly bruised ego, and suddenly saw something that caught his attention. Without any hesitation, Sonic dashed out from the scene, fast enough to leave a silhouette in grey dust after him.

-----

There, in the deepest region at sea level of the Marble Zone, Sonic found a strange object floating a few feet over the ground.

"_How come I never seen that one before?"_ Sonic wondered in amazement at the strange thing.

It was a large golden ring, just like the magical ones Sonic used to protect himself from damage. Except, as already mentioned, it was much bigger then the ones the young hedgehog was used to collect.

"_Maybe it's some __new type of… Super protective ring?"_ Sonic thought, as he lifted a hand to examine the mysterious object further. But upon touching the golden surface, a white spark erupted from where Sonic had placed his finger tip, and soon evolved into a full-scale flare of energy that enveloped both the giant ring and the unsuspecting young hedgehog.

"_What's happening?"_ Sonic wondered in surprise.

But the hedgehog was unable to fight whatever was pulling him forward with such incredible force, seemingly dragging him into the ring…

-----

The mad scientist Dr. Robotnik was currently in another one of his grand mechanical creations, a vehicle similar to his now destroyed submarine, but made out of tougher materials, to withstand the boiling temperatures of the Marble Zone's lava streams.

Quite impressive for a machine, but no super-dense metal in the world could make up for the humiliating defeat that had been bestowed upon him by the blue hedgehog named Sonic. Two of the chaos emeralds had already slipped out of his hands into the awaiting fingers of the young hedgehog with irrelative ease.

A sudden bleeping in a monitor depicting a blue dot suddenly appearing with some kind of gemstone giving of energy readings in his hand confirmed what the doctor had hoped was impossible.

"That's THREE chaos emeralds…" The doctor snarled, boiling furiously as he tried to contain his anger.

Unable to keep his wrath inside, Robotnik took a firm grasp on a nearby microphone, almost crushing it in his tightly clenched fist. The doctor's firmly shut lips opened to shout out a new order to the remaining crew of his lava ship.

"Prepare my aircraft!"

-----

_**Act III**_

Sonic reappeared out of thin air in a burst of light from unknown whereabouts, and in his hand, he carried the object of the doctor's affections, the red chaos emerald. He looked around, and found himself by a large pool of lava. With three of the magical gems in his possession, the hedgehog felt even more confident that he could thwart the doctor's plan before it even started.

But Robotnik wasn't going to let the hedgehog through that easily.

From the depths of the pool, a large mechanical vehicle appeared, and the all too familiar cock-pit with the shape of Dr. Robotnik inside arose from the boiling liquid. The cock-pit disconnected from the lava ship, which sunk back into the fiery waves, leaving its master to deal with the blue nuisance personally.

Sonic boldly threw himself into ball form and connected with the vehicle's armour. That was one of the young hedgehog's first mistakes in his fight against the mad scientist's war machines.

The hedgehog let out a yelp of pain as from the back of his quilled head to the end of his blue tail was tinted with very tiny flames. He quickly put the fire out by patting his hands over the burnt parts, learning the hard way that you shouldn't touch a vehicle dipped in lava before it had have some time to cool off a bit.

"_That cost me some rings. But I guess that to make an omelette…"_

Sonic sprang from the ground in a flash, directing a powerful kick against the cock-pit.

"_You have to crack some eggs!"_

The blue hedgehog dealt a powerful blow to Robotnik's vehicle, sending the doctor and his mechanical creation sky high with such force, that he disappeared over the horizon.

"Impossibleeeeeeeee…" The doctor shouted as he became nothing more but a small dot in the sky.

Sonic was left staring after the doctor and his toy, amazed at his sudden outburst of strength.

"_I didn't hit that hard…" _The blue hedgehog thought and tightened a muscle in his arm, feeling no difference at all. It happened to be the same arm with the hand that still held onto the red chaos emerald.

Sonic lifted the mysterious gem to his eyes, and the emerald seemed to shine slightly brighter.

"_What secrets do you hide?"_ The young hedgehog wondered as he rolled the chaos emerald between his index finger and thumb.

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**Author's notes:**

**To N. Harmonik** – How's that for use of the chaos emeralds? It's too early in the series to introduce Super Sonic, but I guess I can let the hedgehog get away with some enhanced strength, don't I?

**To Blue Mage Quartet **– Well, in the Mega Drive version, I never got to the Star Light Zone. As for the Game Gear version, I never got a chance to even play it.


	6. Chapter 05: Spring Yard

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Chapter 05: Spring Yard**

(THEME: Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1)

_**Act I**_

The Spring Yard was the place to go if you went to South Island for fun and games. Along the roads through the highly decorated theme park there were occasional bumpers that could rocket you sky-high to grab some magic rings for protection. Pinball machines large enough to hold a grown man trapped inside were also present.

It was truly a sad sight to see it run over by Robotnik's troops, installing the poor inhabitants as organic long-living batteries into their metallic bodies. No one escaped the robotic riot that was tearing down the Spring Yard.

And it was somewhere deep inside of this robot-infested theme park that the chaos emerald was hidden. But after a recent mysterious event, only Sonic knew how to get to this one particular emerald. The only fact revealed so far, was that he needed lots of rings to complete the task.

And ring collecting wasn't an issue, as the gigantic pinball machines and dimly lighted roads were seemingly overflowing of hundreds of rings. The hard thing was to keep them.

------

The blue hedgehog found himself running down a slope, grabbing rings as he went by at blistering speed, when something suddenly hit him in the back of his legs, sweeping him of his feet and scattering the claimed rings everywhere. The young hedgehog was sent into the air, but a well-timed flip helped him land on his feet and regain balance in a matter of seconds.

Sonic lifted his gaze to find out whatever had caused this momentarily distraction, and stood face to face with a new badnik of Robotnik's, the mischievous mechanical armadillo known as Roller.

The robot imitated Sonic's signature move and rolled down the slope, escaping both a serious beating and some severe curses from Sonic's mouth. It was only a matter of time before the hedgehog could pick up the chase with his new rival.

But first thing's first, Sonic had to recover the golden rings for whatever reason he had.

------

_**Act II**_

Dr. Robotnik sat down in his aircraft. While his robots were busy trying to mash down the budge in the flying vehicle's armour, the doctor was looking with everything but amusement at a monitor showing the cursed blue hedgehog running through a tunnel in the Spring Yard, avoiding the spiked metallic orbs that he, the great Dr. Robotnik, had placed out with such brilliant precision.

The furious doctor pushed two buttons on his aircraft's control panel, turning off the monitor and activating the vehicle's main thrusters. The badniks were slightly taken back by this, unprepared at their master's sudden departure and sent backwards by the force of the thrusters.

The aircraft's motors soon took up the pace and velocity, and Robotnik pushed another button on the control panel. Upon activation, a long metallic spike protruded from the underside of the flying vehicle's body...

------

_**Act III**_

Sonic ran down another slope, this one filled with a swarm of Buzzbombers. But the hedgehog was too fast for them, sending them to oblivion simply by using the air stream from the sonic boom generated by his amazing speed.

However, since an outburst like that would usually have resulted in a great loss of stamina for the young hedgehog, he owed this sudden power boost to the purple chaos emerald that rested in his grasp. Where he had obtained the mystic gem was unknown to Robotnik's troops.

And the doctor didn't care, as thanks to the hedgehog, four of the chaos emeralds had already been unearthed without him having to lift a single finger.

And now, the doctor schemed to claim what rightfully belonged to him.

------

Sonic found himself on a bridge of rocky blocks that seemed rather unstable, but still good enough to walk on.

True to the schedule, Dr. Robotnik arrived to get another shot at the cursed blue hedgehog. The bridge was more than a suitable arena for Eggman's and Sonic's fight. Of course, Robotnik believed that he had the upper hand.

But Sonic still had a few aces up his sleeve, or chaos emeralds in his invisible pockets if you wanted to be picky.

Robotnik wasted no time bragging, but was unable to contain a slight snickering as the aircraft's circular shadow cast itself over the blue hedgehog. And with the deactivation of the flying vehicle's thrusters keeping it afloat, the aircraft dropped to show its sharp spike into Sonic.

With a loud crash, Robotnik and his killer toy slammed into the ground. If he hadn't pierced the spiky rat with the spike, then he most assuredly must have flattened him.

But to the doctor's disappointment, Sonic had been to quick again, and was now jumping and bouncing against the aircraft's cargo for all his worth. The scientist frowned at the blue hedgehog as his beloved vehicle took excessive damage from Sonic's senseless pounding. Disgruntled, Robotnik reactivated the thrusters on his flying machine to try another attack.

It was then that the doctor realized that thanks to the spike, he had lodged his aircraft into one of the giant bricks in the shaky bridge. In desperation, Robotnik pushed the thrusters activation button repeatedly, finally resulting in him pulling the entire block with him and retracting the spike so the boulder smashed into pieces against the now slightly incomplete bridge.

"_Now to deal with the rodent..."_Dr. Robotnik thought, but suddenly made a shocking discovery.

His beloved aircraft had been severely damaged by Sonic, emitting sparks and leaking oil that dripped onto the remains of the rock spread out over the bridge. Small explosions reflected themselves in the doctor's glasses, and the eyes behind them connected with the green ones of Sonic, standing a bit away from the fireworks in Robotnik's aircraft.

The doctor looked as if he was trying to kill Sonic with his glare, and since that plan would never work, Robotnik resorted to an embarrassing retreat, leaving the smirking hedgehog free to cross the bridge and head for the Jungle Zone and the fifth chaos emerald.

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**Author'****s Notes:**

VERY late update. Sorry, I've been quite busy. If you're still reading it, then I'm impressed by your patience.

**To N. Harmonik: **Don't worry about the animals N, you know Sonic better than that, don't you?

**To Blue Mage Quartet: **Thanks, but I'm looking forward to write the "real fusion stories" in the future.


	7. Chapter 06: Jungle Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Chapter 06****: Jungle Zone**

(THEME: Jungle Zone from Sonic 1, 8-bit)

_**Act I**_

Sonic made his entrance in the Jungle Zone by cracking an unsuspecting Crabmeat wide open. The reason, other than he thought the crab robot had an animal trapped inside, which it didn't, was that the Crabmeat had found the chaos emerald in the Jungle Zone before Sonic, which itself alone was a great accomplishment. But as already mentioned, the greyish gem had now switched owner, joining its new collector's other four emeralds.

Somehow, there were no animals in the robots this time around. Maybe the doctor was running out of the poor animals to torture and imprison.

A wonderful, but poorly spent thought.

Sonic spent no more time wondering about the robot's sudden decrease in power sources, as he had more important matters to tend to. Even though it was just a dangerous stunt of the young hedgehog, pulled of simply because of the thrill of an adrenaline rush.

Sonic used all his balance to run up a green vine that extended between two trees, making great progress as the hedgehog's fast footwork enabled him to perform the deed most line dancers only could dream of.

As soon as the loosely hanging vine spanning between the massive trees came to an end, Sonic jumped to the next one, took a split second to regain his balance and kept on going, until he found himself heading into the way of a waterfall.

"_This should be interesting."_ Sonic thought, took a sprinting stance, and threw himself over the cliff he was standing on, down the waterfall.

Anyone who would have looked upon this act as a suicide attempt truly didn't understand the limits of Sonic's speed.

In the time space of three seconds, the blue hedgehog's trusty feet had performed the feat of running across two thick logs caught in the stream and falling down the waterfall, to safely put their owner down on the other side.

Sonic threw a glance over his shoulder and smirked at the waterfall he just had defied. The hedgehog slapped off the dust on his gloves against his legs and proceeded deeper into the jungle.

_**Act II**_

The blue hedgehog let out a whistle of amusement at what lay before him. Or more like, hanged above him.

It was kind of like the climbing walls you saw mountain-climbers train on when they weren't in the Alps or something like that, but this was more of an extreme "Fall-And-You-Face-Certain-Death" version with a waterfall behind for extra dramatic scenery.

To make matters worse, the various platforms were lined with Robotnik's badniks, set out to stop intruders and possible organic batteries.

This view would probably make any other adventurer consider an alternate route, but Sonic was up to the challenge. One simple stretching and cracking of his fingers later, the young hedgehog began his conquer of the mountain.

"_This is going to be a long climb."_The blue hedgehog thought as he jumped a set of platforms to ascend to the height of the mountain.

---------

"HOW-MANY-EXPLOSIVES-DID-YOU-SAY-THAT-YOU-NEEDED, MASTER?" The blue robot chameleon known as Meleon asked, as it always did when its CPU couldn't comply with the information that its master tried to scream into his mechanic brain.

Or to put it in everyday terms, he didn't quite understand his master's commands of loading his aircraft to the breaking point, due to that the steel alloy was virtually indestructible, at least to "packing damage."

"Everything you can dish out!" The angered doctor Robotnik ordered his badnik, but upon seeing that it still didn't catch his drift, he sighed and calmed down slowly.

"Fine, load 10 bombs." The scientist said, his frustration halfway faded away, but there were still a few veins near bursting point visible on Robotnik's forehead.

"AFFIRMATIVE." The floating chameleon robot replied, and immediately flew of to follow the doctor's commands. Meanwhile, the doctor sighed once more.

"_You just can't get good help these days."_ Robotnik thought, and followed the Meleon to his newly repaired flight vehicle.

"_Even if you build it yourself."_

_**Act III**_

Having left the ground level below him, Sonic found himself relying on the vines in the treetops to get through. Maybe this time, he could get to the next zone without having another run-in with Dr. Robotnik.

But fate just had to repeat itself.

In a loud rustling of leaves, the doctor revealed himself to the blue hedgehog, ready for another showdown, with a mischievous grin of glee stuck on his face. Sonic sighed, and the five chaos emeralds seemed to rustle slightly in the sea of quills on the hedgehog's back where they were safely hidden. Sonic slowed down, and was soon placed in the middle of an extra long, green vine, with Robotnik's aircraft hovering slightly above it.

The doctor made the first move, dropping a round object from his vehicle onto the end of the vine opposite of the end that Sonic was standing on.

"_Gyro-bomb away." _The doctor smiled without curling his lips. (Author's Note: How do you like my way of explaining how those round bombs keep the balance on those thin vines?)

The explosive, far more advanced than any regular bomb, started rolling down the vine against the blue hedgehog, controlled by its gyroscopic sensors. It soon began to flash red, to indicate that the detonation mechanism had been activated. A few seconds later, it exploded just as planned. The doctor laughed manically, but his laughter slowly faded away when he heard a metallic tapping of rubber sole against steel alloy.

The doctor turned around as far as he could in his formfitting vehicle, only to see that the blue irritating little hedgehog was standing on the edge of the vehicle that he couldn't reach from his current position. Sonic smirked in triumph.

"You know, doctor. When you're trying to pull a sneak attack on someone, you should think of two things. A) Try to actually sneak. B) Don't drop explosives that give away so obvious signs of detonation!" The hedgehog said, and jumped off the flight vehicle before Robotnik could try to shake him off like some rabies-infected Chihuahua chewing on his pants legs.

When the doctor had regained full control of the levers in his vehicle, Sonic had already disappeared into the treetops with agility like a monkey; the only trace left being a small opening in the leaf ceiling, letting through some filtered sunlight that reflected itself in the slightly trimmed bunch of foliage sweeping down from the hole.

Dr. Robotnik cursed silently, and commanded his aircraft to go at full speed and follow the blue menace wherever it had decided to venture.

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**Author's Notes:** Back again. I can hardly wait until I start the next story, at least I'll have a foxy sidekick to play around with. (Sorry about the terrible pun.)

**To N. Harmonik: **I guess that's a possibility. I haven't really given it much thought.


	8. Chapter 07: Labyrinth Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Chapter 07****: Labyrinth Zone**

Sonic easily left Robotnik in the dust, or leaves, if you need to be picky. His speed and agility brought him through the forest with relative ease, and the blue hedgehog soon found himself at the entrance to the next badnik-infested zone, and the next chaos emerald.

But the hedgehog felt reluctant this time around.

The entrance, which merely was a square-shaped gaping hole in the middle of the Jungle Zone, was also the gateway to the water-filled zone called Labyrinth Zone, an underground maze from years gone by, now partly submerged in the liquid H20. Today, visitors that didn't use any kind of diving equipment to travel into the zone were either fishes or completely out of their mind.

Sonic wasn't the best of swimmers. In fact, even a rock could keep afloat better than the blue hedgehog, as he liked to put it himself, but still intended to keep it a secret for as long as he could, to maintain his "cool image".

Now, as he stood there, his thoughts tended to wander towards the possibility that one little emerald less couldn't the end of the world. He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head, took a deep breath, and one splash later, the blue hedgehog was semi-running, semi-slipping forwards underwater, hoping that his personal record of holding his breath for 30 seconds would be enough for the first submerged tunnel in the underground labyrinth.

_**Act I**_

(THEME: Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1)

Sonic jumped out of the water into one of the air pockets of the Labyrinth Zone, breathing in eagerly awaited oxygen into his aching lungs.

The interior of the chambers was quite impressive, the blocks building up the walls covered with mysterious images carved into the stone. A little bit here and there you could see crystal formations capturing and supplying light to any visitor that happened to come across the watery zone.

The blue the hedgehog took a few seconds to refill his lungs, and then slowly preceded forward.

Suddenly, the ground shook like an earthquake. Out of the stone floor, an iron drill erupted, sending small clouds of dust to the sides. What followed afterwards had a slight ring of mayhem to it.

A new badnik, known as Burrobot, exploded from the ground, sending a whole row of blocks into the air, cracking them into smaller pieces against floor, ceiling and surrounding walls. Now, the drillnosed robot intended to become, like every other badnik that had failed before him, the one that would put an end to Sonic's heroic feats.

A few seconds later, the remains of Burrobot's robotic shell fell into the water to remain and perhaps rust into nothingness, while its organic battery, the Pecky prisoner, speedily swam away from its destroyed prison.

Sonic stood at a safe distance from the water, smiling at the little penguin as it regained its freedom.

But a reflection in the water's mirror surface caused Sonic to dive to his side onto the floor as a metallic spiked ball connected to a long chain slammed into the wall next to him, lodging itself deeply into the mountain rock with a deafening slamming sound.

The blue hedgehog dusted himself off and studied Robotnik's patented hedgehog pancake flattener.

"_Guess there's no turning back now." _Sonic thought, and jumped into the water were he had dumped the Burrobot, intent on recovering the next chaos emerald, no matter what.

-----

Sonic carefully guided himself through the dark water-filled passageway, saving energy to keep his one single breath with enough oxygen to make it to the next air pocket.

Suddenly, two more Burrobots specifically designed for aquatic areas burst up from the floor. The air bubbles floated wildly in a blur that covered the three combatants battle from anyone's watch.

When the cloud of bubbles cleared, the only thing left was a number of spare robot parts and a blue hedgehog.

(THEME: Gasping for Breath from Sonic 1)

A slightly bluer than usual hedgehog.

Sonic had used up all the oxygen in his breath, and he desperately needed air.

The blue hedgehog's wide eyes looked for a fast way out, but there was no one in reach. It began to grow black around Sonic's vision field. In desperation, the young hedgehog slowly but steadily reached for a rather large bubble rising from the stone floor, figuring that one of his crazy ideas was worth a shot. He pushed his head into the bubble, drowning in...

A rich supply of oxygen.

Sonic drew in a breath of new, fresh air, slightly dazed and thankful that his plan had worked. With enough oxygen to last him for the rest of the underwater trip, Sonic continued forward.

-----

Sonic found a new air pocket where he could move around more freely, but as he jumped out of the water and touched firm ground, his excitement was short-lived.

Just a few metres ahead, there were another underwater passage that was the only way to proceed. Not only that, but the water was full of Jaws, Robotnik's vicious piranha badniks. Those mean fishes would certainly have the upper hand, or upper fin, if he tried to pick a battle with them in their natural environment.

So Sonic decided to do the next best thing, jumping over the edge and curling into a spiky ball. Thanks to his weight and speed, all the Jaws that passed either under or close to him on his descent were either destroyed by the saw-like spikes or temporarily confused by the draft created by Sonic.

As soon as he reached bottom, Sonic suddenly found himself speeding almost as fast as on dry land through the water. Maybe he was getting the hang of this "swimming" thing. But so wasn't the case, he realized, as he was swept of his feet and carried by a vortex into a smaller underwater area.

As the suction withdrew and Sonic found himself regaining enough control to place feet onto the ground, he saw what looked like some kind of mining belt, bringing platforms with all kind of crystals except chaos emerald to higher levels.

If Sonic had an unlimited amount of oxygen, he would have sighed at the sight. Instead, he followed the moving platforms deeper into the zone.

-----

Sonic found another oxygen source in some bubbles that seeped out from between two rocks, and decided to refill his lungs when he had the chance. But as he bent forward, something shot up from the ground behind him, causing a quick pain in hedgehog behind.

Sonic almost yelped in surprise mixed with pain, but instead rubbed his tail while mumbling silently, letting out a few air bubbles from the corners of his mouth. He turned around to get a look at what had pierced him in his behind.

Out of the ground, a spear of old fashioned design stood erect, before quickly withdrawing into the stone floor.

"_I better be careful, this place seems to be full of booby traps."_Sonic figured, turning back on track while still rubbing the pain out of his sore behind.

"_And__ BOOTY traps. Ouch." _The blue hedgehog complained as he took a new oxygen bubble into his mouth, keeping himself sustained below sea level.

-----

Deeper into the zone, Sonic now faced a (almost) worthy adversary. The sphere-shaped Orbinaut, one of Robotnik's greater creations, was a badnik that could really pack a punch with the four spiked balls that circled around its orb body.

Sonic was fairly impressed, even though he had some greater difficulty dodging all four of the iron-spiked orbs as Orbinaut threw them at him. But he got his reward in the form of a completely defenceless Orbinaut...

-----

Leaving the rests of Orbinaut at the bottom of the water-filled chamber, Sonic raced forwards through an air-filled passageway for a change, only to screech to a sudden halt, face to face with a smirking dragon's head. His heart jumped in shock, but then he realized that the dragonhead was nothing but a very lifelike stone bust. Smirking, Sonic took a few steps forwards, unknowingly trigging a mechanism in the floor, but was quick enough to dodge what had happened next.

Sonic looked over his shoulder onto the small gooey plump of hot lava that was slightly scourging the stone floor, lying there since the three seconds ago that it had been released from the dragonhead's mouth and almost passed through the blue hedgehog's head. The hedgehog turned his gaze back to the dragonhead, which stony smirk didn't seem so innocent anymore.

"_Booby traps, Sonic."_ The young hedgehog repeated to himself before continuing on his hunt for the chaos emerald.

_**Act II**_

(THEME: Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1, 8-bit)

As Sonic went through a section of the Labyrinth Zone that wasn't submerged, he came to a halt at a place where he saw his chance for some fun in this drenched maze.

At the cliff's edge, a ramp, possibly for transportation of any unknown minerals, water had started leaking down from a wide hole in the ceiling, turning the ramp into a waterslide for professionals.

Sonic could hardly contain himself as he threw his hedgehog body down the waterslide, spraying water drops to left and right as he ironically enjoyed the liquid he normally disapproved of to its full extent, sending him deeper into the underground maze at a steadily accelerating rate.

-----

At the end of the waterslide, Sonic could hardly believe his luck, and the badniks incompetence.

There, lodged between the spears in one of Robotnik's own spiky traps, the sixth chaos emerald was stuck, at the very last place the doctor and his robots would look. Sonic shook his head at the flaw in Robotnik's plan and reached in between the spikes. After some prying and pulling, the blue hedgehog managed to free the glowing gem from its accidental confinement.

_**Act III**_

While making a dash through the passageway to the surface, Sonic spotted a familiar sphere-shaped vehicle.

"Robotnik!" The blue hedgehog shouted.

Upon hearing his name being uttered, Robotnik turned his head around, and after a one second eye contact between the doctor and the hedgehog, he made a hasty escape upwards through a shaft leading to the surface.

Or at least, that's what Sonic thought, as he followed the doctor and his aircraft up through the shaft by propelling himself from wall to wall.

-----

At the end of the vertical tunnel, Sonic flipped upwards to land on the edge of the shaft's upper end, looking from side to side as the shaft somehow closed behind him...

Sonic dashed at full speed forward, when the ground below his feet suddenly started to get slippery. Looking down, he realized that the passageway was filling up with water at a fast rate. Soon the water level reached him up to his knees, and more trouble was soon to come.

Sonic reached a large chamber at the end of the tunnel as the water now reached him to his waist, and who else could you possibly find here to cause trouble for Sonic, but Robotnik in his aircraft, converted into a submarine?

The water now reached in over Sonic's head, submerging him completely. As long as there still were air bubbles leaking into the room through the stone floor, the blue hedgehog didn't have to worry about any sudden lack of oxygen.

But then again, what fun would it be without a challenge?

With those words in mind, Sonic threw himself through the water; ready to kick Robotnik's butt all the way up to the surface.

-----

Sonic burst out from the ground in a geyser he had subsequently created himself, drawing in his first breath above sea level, and spluttering out some bitter water drops mixed with excess motor oil from Dr. Robotnik's bruised submarine/aircraft/whatever.

But the mission in Labyrinth Zone was nevertheless a success, and Sonic reached into the sea of quills after the six emeralds he thought he had claimed...

-----

Meanwhile, still in the Labyrinth Zone, Robotnik was angrily banging his fists at the control board, not because it didn't work properly, which it did, but because he had suffered another humiliating defeat by Sonic the Hedgehog. Next time, he would bring bigger torpedos.

A sudden bleeping from his radar blinking red alerted the doctor about some thing that made him slowly shine up from anger into excitement.

An easy 180 degree turnabout was all it took to come into visual contact with the two dark blue and green chaos emeralds that had had slipped out of Sonic's quills, soaked into extreme slipperiness while the blue hedgehog had been running around in the underwater maze...

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**Author's comments: **How do you like them apples? Always wanted to type that XD. Anyway, was it too bold of me to write such a story twist? I mean, now Robotnik has not one, but two chaos emeralds to experiment with. Will it spell certain doom for your favourite hedgehog? Probably not, since I won't kill off any characters just yet.

**To N.Harmonik: **You make it sound like I was some kind of poet.

_Roses are red_

_Violets are blue_

_So is the sneakers plus__ Sonic_

_That is true_

XD


	9. Chapter 08: Star Light Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Chapter 08****: Star Light Zone**

(THEME: Star Light Zone from Sonic 1)

_**Act I**_

Sonic entered into the outer borders of Robotnik's newly established city easily, speeding past the first of the defences with relative ease. Knowing that somewhere in this city, Robotnik had placed the two emeralds that slipped out of his grip at some place of high security, what other choice did he have but to try and reclaim them as fast as he could?

-----

Sonic ran down the slopes that mirrored Robotnik's twisted ideas of a utopian robotic society, and as angry as he was at himself for losing the two emeralds to Robotnik, his rolling spin manoeuvre easily cut through any brick wall that came in his way.

That did however not stop one of the latest robots in Robotnik's badnik army from blocking his path. Bomb, which was, as its name suggested, an explosive kamikaze robot designed for the sole purpose of blowing up in any trespassers face.

Of course, Sonic didn't know about that when he lunged at the small round badnik.

Sonic learned the hard way that Bomb was somewhat tougher than Robotnik's earlier robots, as he bounced back from a kick at the badnik's armour plating. The blue hedgehog fell hard onto his behind, and as he looked up at the robot from the ground, he saw that it was flashing red, forewarning about its detonation.

"_Oh no."_ Sonic thought, and the vicious badnik exploded in his face.

As the smoke cleared out, the blue hedgehog now had a coal black face. He coughed up some small breaths of dark smoke, rubbed the black out of his eyes, and continued forward, slightly more peeved than before.

-----

A little bit deeper into the Star Light Zone, Sonic saw his chance to let out some aggression.

A slightly altered Orbinaut, with a green colour scheme rather than the red one the young hedgehog was used to, floated before him like that irritating fly you just want to silence for good with a rolled up newspaper.

Sonic threw himself at the sphere-shaped badnik, counting on that the robot would release its only defence against him in a poorly calculated attack.

That was the only flaw in Sonic's plan, as this Orbinaut's defence program was more advanced than the earlier designs. With its spikes still swirling around itself, it simply hovered higher over the ground, making it impossible for the hedgehog to reach it without wings.

"_Chicken!"_ Sonic yelled, and then sped ahead towards his true goal of reclaiming the chaos emeralds, while some other defences threw fireballs at his trail.

But the blue hedgehog couldn't help but wonder. If these badniks were too tough for him, would he stand even the slightest chance if Robotnik had already figured out a way to drain the chaos emeralds power into his robots?

_**Act II**_

Robotnik sat in his chambers, studying his most precious (stolen) possessions, the two chaos emeralds he had found in the Labyrinth Zone. Soon, the secret to infinite power would be his.

Suddenly, one of his Orbinauts flew in through a doorway with news for its master.

"MASTER-ROBOTNIK-WE-HAVE-DISCOVERED-THE-HEDGEHOG-HEADING-FOR-YOUR-POSITION." The sphere-shaped robot spoke.

"What does it matter?" Robotnik replied.

"With these chaos emeralds, I can't lose!"

"BUT-MASTER-WHAT-IF-THE-HEDGEHOG-DESTROYS-THE-CITY'S-POWER-PLANT? THERE-WON'T-BE-ANY-POWER-TO-CONDUCT-EXPERIMENTS-ON-THE-CHAOS-EMERALDS." Orbinaut explained.

Upon realizing this fact, the doctor mumbled slightly.

"Good point."

_**Act III**_

Sonic swung over a wide gap in the metallic passageway using a bit of help from one of Robotnik's giant spiked maces that was originally designed to swing forward and backwards to mash intruders into fleshy pieces of pulp.

At the other side of the gap, he was in for a bit of shock as he stood face to face with a squadron of Robotnik's tougher badniks.

One green Orbinaut and five Bombs, hanging from the ceiling, were blocking his path. If he wanted to get through here, he would have to use his wits rather than his strength and speed.

A plan formed in Sonic's head, and he initiated it by sticking out his tongue mockingly at the Bombs in the ceiling. The Bombs began to blink red in unison at the blue hedgehog, and dropped from the ceiling.

Before they touched ground, however, Sonic had dashed by so fast that Orbinaut was sent spinning around like a runaway spinning top. Disoriented and not in control of the situation, Orbinaut accidentally released all his spike balls around him, which crashed into the Bombs, causing malfunctions that triggered the detonation to early.

To spare any badnik's pride, let's just say that it was "only" another humiliating defeat by the cursed hedgehog Sonic.

Hopefully, the entire badnik population would get their revenge soon, as Sonic ran into an open area, running into the big man himself, the soon-to-be ruler of the planet Mobius, Dr. Robotnik.

-----

Sonic looked around to see some kind of metallic constructions that greatly resembled those teeter-tooters you saw small kids play around with, and as he looked up he also saw Dr. Robotnik descending in his trademark flight vehicle, with a mischievous grin plastered across his face.

The doctor pressed a button in his control panel, and the second the dial was pushed in, a cascade of spiky mines flashing red dropped from the vehicle's underside. As Sonic zigzagged under him to avoid the explosions, Robotnik laughed manically.

His gloating came to an abrupt stop when a sudden shaking of his aircraft showed that he was still in reach for Sonic's jumps and kicks.

"_Why, you little...!"_ Robotnik snarled under his breath, and launched one single mine at the blue pest in frustration.

Sonic landed, after his first hit at the aircraft's cargo, at the end of the teeter-tooter, but was suddenly launched back into the air as Robotnik's mine landed on the other end, and curled into his spinning ball form in surprise. His spiked backside connected with the doctor's vehicle and cut a rip in the armour. After the impact, Sonic fell back down at the mechanic teeter-tooter with the mine, landed on the side opposite of the not yet exploded bomb, sending the accidental projectile up into Robotnik's creation.

The mine exploded upon impact, leaving a big hole in the doctor's aircraft. When both Robotnik and Sonic had figured out what just happened, a drop of sweat went down Robotnik's forehead while a smirk grew in Sonic's muzzle.

------

Sonic dusted himself off and slowly walked deeper into the city, with Robotnik's oil-leaking aircraft in his background. Maybe he had learned the lesson that you shouldn't get so cocky just because you have two chaos emeralds in your possession.

"_Now to get back those chaos emeralds."_ Sonic thought, and sped into the deeper bowels of the mechanical city, the "Scrap Brain" zone.

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**Author's Notes: **Got up the new chapter a little early. But what the heck, I feel productive. Guess I'm the TRUE "fastest thing alive." XD

**To N. Harmonik**4 emeralds for Sonic, 2 for Robotnik. That makes 6.

**To ****Blue Mage Quartet: **Yeah, dramatic is my middle name. Well, actually it's Kim. (By the way, are there any American men that's named Kim?)

**To Master hunter: **Thanks for adding my humble story to your C2 archive.


	10. Chapter 09: Scrap Brain Zone

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Chapter 09****: Scrap Brain Zone**

(THEME: Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1)

_**Act I**_

The inner bowels of Robotnik's newly established factories were the only source of pollution that South Island had ever seen. The city was no place for any living beings, as the toxic air could have fatal outcome for the small inhabitants of the island.

Luckily for Sonic, the smoke clouds hadn't grown thick enough to slow him down just yet. From information acquired by interrogation of some not so loyal badniks that wished to save themselves, Sonic had concluded that the entire factory zone was powered by one of the chaos emeralds.

So Sonic had no other choice but enter the zone to retrieve the magical gem from Dr. Robotnik's clutches.

------

The principle of the traps inside of the factory was fairly simple. Kill Sonic in the most gruesome way possible. And with hidden trap doors and steel pipes blowing fire and turning any trespassers into charcoal, there weren't many chances of a "gentle" death around the Scrap Brain Zone.

Sonic rolled straight through a Caterkiller that was stubborn enough to attack him head-on and without reinforcements, releasing the Kucky trapped inside with a loud cracking sound. The small creature took air instantly, knowing far too well the consequences of staying too long in the pollution-infested area if you were a Kucky.

Sonic then proceeded by jumping over a few Bombs as they exploded as he passed by, sending their debris everyway. It was truly lucky that Robotnik didn't use organic batteries in those kamikaze robots, or else things might have gone a little to messy for Sonic's stomach to take.

After jumping and almost hitting the ceiling, Sonic had to roll along the floor a few hundred feet, since the ceiling was enlightened with electricity to burn him otherwise. Keeping him the perfect target for Robotnik's newly finished badniks, the Ball Hogs.

Fairly simple, these Pigbots were hardly worth the challenge, as they weren't even quick enough to throw their bombs at the speedy hedgehog as he spun through them, releasing the animals trapped within.

_**Act II**_

(THEME: Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1, 8-bit.)

The inner workings of the factory were just as grim as the outside, with more traps for Sonic as he sped through in search of its energy source, the stolen chaos emerald.

A few Caterkillers were blocking his path, indicating that Robotnik didn't except anyone to get this far, and wasn't completely prepared. So the powerful gem must be close by.

As soon as the Caterkillers were taken care off, Sonic raced down on top of a conveyor belt. Suddenly, a buzzing sound alerted the blue hedgehog of incoming danger, and he threw himself to the ground, seconds before a gigantic spinning saw blade passed over his head.

As soon as he had dodged the saw and made it to the end of the conveyor belt, a shadow covered the blue hedgehog in darkness from overhead. Sonic took one second to look up, his eyes widened, and he immediately threw himself forward, out of the way of a block that slammed into the ground where the blue hedgehog had been standing half a second earlier.

Sonic silently got up, dusting himself off, and thought about the possibilities of becoming a hedgehog pancake in this factory.

"_Guess Robotnik isn't playing nice anymore."_ The blue hedgehog thought, before heading deeper into the factory, dodging giant maces that swung back and forth to splat him against a wall, or to just chop his head off his shoulders.

-----

In a surprisingly badnikfree part of the Scrap Brain Zone, Sonic saw a strange construction in an abandoned room. The curious hedgehog stepped up to what looked like a round, slightly heightened platform in the room, with an identical device hanging from the roof above it.

Sonic noticed a small sign on the side of the machine, which answered all the questions about the device.

_**Robotnik's One Way Teleporter**_

Sonic looked closer at the teleportation device, finding the control panel. The blue hedgehog wasn't a scientist, but the navigation seemed pretty easy to use. With a swipe of his quick fingers, he pinpointed the exact location of the room he wanted to visit.

The elevator lightened up, shooting a beam down from the upper part, reflecting off the lower part. The blue hedgehog jumped into the light, and Sonic's silhouette turned and twisted into small particles.

"_That tickles."_ Sonic thought as he disappeared in the light, while the control panel bleeped slightly, showing both name and location of the room that Sonic now was in.

_**Chaos Emerald Energy Core**_

-----

"_Who would have __known that Robotnik's teleporter would get me to the chaos emerald?" _Sonic triumphantly thought, clenching his fist around the green gem in his hands.

At the end of the death-trap tunnels, Sonic was surprised to find a way too familiar face, but more than surprised that the doctor wasn't sitting in his aircraft to meet him. Obviously, by looking at the blue gem he had in his hand, the doctor had decided to flee with what's left and leave the factory behind.

"Robotnik!" Sonic exclaimed, and threw himself against the doctor at full speed. Not such a bright idea, as he hit an invisible wall in front of him, separating the blue hedgehog and the doctor from each other. With a mischievous smile, the doctor lifted his right foot and pressed down on a large button that made the floor crumble on Sonic's side of the force field, and Sonic fell through the wide hole into one of the newly added sections of Robotnik's Scrap Brain factory...

_**Act III**_

Sonic landed in what looked like a grey chunk of the Labyrinth Zone, complete with lots of water, with the only difference that that no fishes could live in the polluted water. It was possible that this was a monument to remind the doctor of where he had "obtained" not only one, but two chaos emeralds for his malicious schemes. Ironically, one of the very chaos emeralds that Robotnik had stolen in that zone had now returned to its original finder, Sonic.

A Burrobot suddenly appeared out of the floor just like they used to do in the Labyrinth Zone, and Sonic was somewhat startled, but the digging badnik didn't last long against Sonic this time either.

"_This is just Labyrinth Zone all over again."_ Sonic thought. But even though he had tackled the depths of underwater ruins not too long ago, he still had to stay on his toes if he wanted to make it through this time around.

-----

The fire breathing dragonheads were back, spitting flames after Sonic as he ran through Robotnik's replica of the Labyrinth Zone.

It wasn't long before he had to dive into the water filled sections of the zone again, and he decided that he better keep his mouth shut, since the toxic liquid wasn't really the ideal thirst extinguisher for someone with a fragile organic stomach.

Sonic dove into the water with a loud splash, quickly sinking to the bottom filled with Jaws and Orbinauts and other minor threats.

-----

Robotnik didn't seem to hold back on anything, as a few traps with dangerous maces underwater blocked Sonic's path. Due to not being at full speed under water, the blue hedgehog had to time his advances carefully. One good thing about water, Sonic thought, was that he jumped higher and longer thanks to the waters density.

After having dodged a watery grave yet again, Sonic swam up to the exit of the factory, after carefully checking that he was holding on to five emeralds this time around, just to be safe.

"_Still five. That leaves one."_

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**Author's notes: **One stage left, unless you count the Final Zone as one. That leaves 3 chapters, Sky Base Zone, Finale and Epilogue.

**To N. Harmonik: **Don't you worry about the sequel. After all, for the first author that combined 8-bit and 16-bit Sonic 1 into a fanfic, must surely have more miracles awaiting. XD

**To Blue Mage Quartet: **Thanks for appreciating my story.

**To NUTCASE71733: **Amen to that, brother!


	11. Finale: The Fall of the Sky Base

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Finale****: The Fall of the Sky Base**

(THEME: Sky Base Zone Act I from Sonic 1, 8-bit)

_**Act I**_

The raindrops fell around Sonic's feet like heavy balls of lid, and they made almost as much noise as they clinked against the metallic roofs of the inner bowels of Robotnik's mechanical city. Lightning cracked over Sonic's head and throughout the skies, as he lifted his gaze towards the giant red blimp that floated over the rooftops. It just had to be where Robotnik had fled with the blue chaos emerald.

As the blimp started to ascend slowly, Sonic knew that he had to catch this flight. So without further ado, the blue hedgehog jumped from rooftop to rooftop, bent on not letting Robotnik escape this time.

-----

Robotnik had taken all necessary precautions to ensure his escape from South Island. It almost seemed as if he had foreseen the bad weather, with lightning rods that redirected the explosive power from the skies to his security systems, creating barriers of electric energy to keep Sonic out. Unreliable, but effective.

But mostly unreliable, as the blue hedgehog proved when he sprung through the gaps in the barriers that appeared due to the instable flow of energy.

Other security systems quickly kicked in with cannons and guns, lasers and bombs.

Orbinauts came from high and low to stop the menace to their master's plans, but were ultimately unable to stop Sonic from grabbing onto the outer casing and running across the outside of the blimp, looking for the entrance to the airship.

_**Act II**_

(THEME: Sky Base Zone Act II from Sonic 1, 8-bit.)

Sonic climbed quickly up a ladder, keeping up his speed. The projectiles were coming in higher numbers now, and Sonic had to stay on his toes with more of those kamikaze robots Bombs trying to ram Sonic and detonate in his face as he ran on the outside of the blimps rubbery balloon.

Sonic ran to the nose of the giant blimp, grabbing a hold of a metallic chain and swirling down to a lower level in a corkscrew-like manoeuvre before making a perfect landing on both feet at the bottom. Sonic broke into a spin and knocked down a few cannon towers as he slipped in through one of the blimps air vents.

-----

Sonic stumbled, by sheer luck, onto the blimps power core when he fell down from the ceiling in one of the control rooms, surprisingly unguarded considering the circumstances.

'

Sonic spun around like a blue corkscrew blur, and as soon as the dust had cleared, the blue hedgehog was standing in triumph on top of a pile of scrap metal where the generator once stood, twirling the blue chaos emerald between his fingers. The second the generator was destroyed, the lights went dark, and all metallic doors slammed shut.

Except for one door with neon arrows pointing towards the doors opening. And with no other way out of the room, did he have much of a choice?

_**Act III**_

(THEME: Boss Battle/Final Zone from Sonic 1)

Sonic found himself in a large room with Robotnik himself, sitting in a throne, protected by a thick glass wall to avoid a possible man-to-hedgehog fight.

"You're to late, hedgehog! I've already extracted most of the energy into my glorious airship, which will keep it going for decades! I will finally have enough power to take my rightful place as ruler of Mobius!" Robotnik gloated at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic clenched his fists in front of him, not ready to give up just yet.

"Then I guess I'll just have to rip this whole blimp apart!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Well, I can't allow that now, can I?" Robotnik said and pushed a button on his throne.

A large circle-shaped shadow cast itself over Sonic, and the blue hedgehog quickly threw himself to the side as a heavy piston slammed into the floor beside him, leaving a round mark in the metal.

Sonic quickly recovered from the attack and threw himself against the thick glass, only to bounce back, but not without leaving a serious crack in the transparent material. Robotnik responded by sending the next weapon at the blue hedgehog.

The weapon in question was a laser that appeared from the ceiling with its dangerous red beam following Sonic around as fast the machinery could manage. The only major flaw was the fact that even though Sonic wasn't faster then the speed of light, he could still outrun the speed of the laser pipe as it switched angles. And in the process throwing a few kicks that damaged the glass barrier between him and the doctor further.

Robotnik's next choice of buttons shot energy balls from the ceiling to cremate the blue hedgehog, but Sonic had an unusual stroke of luck as a malfunction divided the assault enough for him to slip through the space in between the eclectic orbs and escape unharmed.

One last kick, and the glass wall cracked with a loud crash.

"It ends here, Robotnik!" Sonic exclaimed as he jumped through the heavily damaged barrier.

But Robotnik wasn't sitting at the throne anymore. The cause of all mayhem that had plagued South Island recently, had fled like the true coward he was.

"You're not getting away that easily!" Sonic shout, ready for another round of cat and mouse. But suddenly, the floor, no, the entire blimp started to shake and crumble, with alarms blaring and warning lights blinking red throughout the corridors.

"That can't be good." Sonic thought.

-----

**Green Hill Zone**

Robotnik's Sky Base blimp lost height quickly, and with an ear-deafening explosion, it crashed into the ocean outside the coast of South Island, with all weapons and badniks without organic batteries aboard facing the same tragic fate.

At least that's how Robotnik felt as he saw his so far greatest mechanical creation sink into the oceans depths from his watch point at Green Hill, floating in his trademark flight vehicle.

"_Well at least that takes care of the hedgehog__. He was a worthy opponent; I'll give him that. Now I have to construct a submarine so I can take back the chaos emeralds from the ocean's depth..."_

"Missed me?" A familiar voice rang through Robotnik's ears.

The next second he knew, a blue spiky ball crashed into his aircraft, doing some slight damage, but still irreparable without the right tools. And as if Robotnik didn't have enough troubles, the blue ball touched ground and turned into the familiar shape of...

"SONIC!?" Robotnik gasped surprised.

"The one and only." Sonic smirked, rubbing his nose in a cocky pose.

"But how?" Robotnik questioned.

"Next time you flee like a chicken, don't leave the teleporter on for the ones left behind."

With those words, a majority of all South Island's inhabitants came out from the bushes surrounding the Green Hill Zone, cheering for Sonic. Robotnik grumbled and pushed a button. With some spluttering from the damaged engines, the doctor made a hasty escape with his back-up jets.

"Don't think this is over, hedgehog." He exclaimed.

"You may have won a battle, but the war is far from over. I will rule South Island, Mobius, even the entire universe! I swear, I'll be back, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

And with those words, Robotnik was nothing but a small dot in the sky, plotting revenge schemes at the blue hedgehog that had foiled him.

"But Sonic, won't Robotnik try to get the emeralds again?" A Picky asked.

The blue hedgehog just smirked.

"He might as well try, but he won't get his dirty hands on them as long as..."

Suddenly, a blue light started shimmering from Sonic's quill-covered backside. The hedgehog pulled the blue chaos emerald; the one Robotnik had used to power his blimp, out of his sea of spikes. The gem, which should have been somewhat drained by now, instead shone brighter than ever before.

The blue chaos emerald suddenly slipped out of his grip on its own accord, with the five other gems following. The magical emeralds then floated in mid-air, before sending out beams of multicoloured lightning that covered everything in blinding light.

As quick as it had started it ended, and the emeralds were gone. The inhabitants were amazed, but Sonic was furious.

"I run across every zone in South Island to find those things, and when I finally have all of them, they decide to get themselves within Robotnik's reach again?"

Sonic shrugged his shoulders and simply spoke:

"Oh, well."

And the blue hedgehog was back in the race for the chaos emeralds, which would keep going for years to come.

**THE END**

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**Author's Notes: **The End. And in true Hollywood spirit, the bad guy, Robotnik, will return. In the sequel! Get ready for the adaptation of Sonic 2 (8-bit+16-bit)

**Credits:**

Original Characters thought up by SEGA, Archie Comics and Virtus the Protector.

Original Game Story created by employes of SEGA.

Side story (Prologue and Epilogue) written entirely by yours truly.

This story was written by Sebastian Sandberg, AKA Virtus the Protector.

Thanks to my only three reviewers:

**N. Harmonik**

**Blue Mage Quartet**

**NUTCASE71733**

And now, something I've forgotten to add at the end of the last chapters, which usually helped me to get new reviewers, especially during the time, that I still called myself Speedslide. Some of you who read the first Sonic S version and were so generous with reviews, might have forgotten me by now.

**PLEASE REVIEW, BUT NO FLAMES!**

**(Stick around for the epilogue.)**


	12. Epilogue

**Sonic S: The Beginning**

_Written by Virtus the Protector_

_Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later._

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**Epilogue**

The masked Virtus tossed and turned in his temporary bed, not as much due to the fact his suit was uncomfortable during sleeping hours, but because of his nightmares.

----

"_Who are you?"__ Virtus asked a shadow that hid at the roof of a brick-house in an alley._

"_Who I am, Virtus? Oh, that's simple. I'm your foe for the day."_ A voice erupted mockingly.

_Virtus was getting slightly ticked off by the mysterious shadowy figure. With his arms folded over his chest__, he repeated the question._

"_WHO are you?"_

_The silhouette shifted slightly, still without revealing itself._

"_Remember when you became Virtus, Earth's own "goody two shoes" bent on protecting the innocent and all that hero stuff. But ask yourself this question, what if you hadn't been such a boy scout? What if you had used your power for getting back at all those bullies that had tortured you through the years, instead of running around fighting crimes and helping old ladies across the street, doing what was morally correct every damn time!?"_

_The figure stepped out of the shadows and Virtus gaped wide beneath his black and red mask in surprise._

_It was a man, in a suit with details almost identical to Virtus' own costume. The only major difference was that the colours seemed to be taken straight from a photo negative, black where Virtus' costume was white and reversed. And the next shocking detail was what revealed that it wasn't even one of those costume take on and off at will._

_A grin of sharp teeth that split the head in two lower and upper halves was plastered across the face where Virtus own mouth was usually hidden behind the mask. And where Virtus had blue eyes, the only physical identification the masked avenger had, this man had red feral eyes that gave an even more menacing look._

"_I was born as a demon from Hell, but a wizard decided to shape me after your image. I guess you've read about it in your beloved superhero comic book collection. The evil twin syndrome. I'm your polar opposite, Virtus. I am every tiny bit of anger, hatred and grief that you have suppressed throughout the years, given shape by the Dark Arts. But you can call me Vice for short to go with the anti-theme. I guess that's one of the few things we have in common. While you fight for peace, I fight for fun, we are both still surprisingly creative." The toothy grin moved._

_Vice took a few steps forward and Virtus braced himself. But Vice just kept talking._

"_We are both quite good actors, for example."_

_Virtus froze. Vice's smirk indicated that he had struck a nerve. The doppelganger moved in for the kill._

"_Isn't that right, Virtus? Or should I say, Mr. Sanders?"_

_Virtus' eyes widened._

"_Yes, that's right, Seb. I know everything about your secret life, your friends and relatives et cetera."_

_Could that smile get any wider?_

"_But don't worry, Seb. I won't spill the beans. It's much more fun to tease you into tears.__"_

_And with those words, the evil twin attacked with all except sticks and stones._

-----

"You're a weakling who holds back on me, Virtus." The masked man snarled in his sleep, tossing his head from side to side.

"To care for the safety of others is not a weakness, Vice!" He replied to his seemingly own threat.

"You should take care of your own safety at first hand." He snapped back at the very words that escaped his lips.

As the masked man seemed to argue with himself, his body started to convulse and go into fits of spasms and glow white. It was a wonder that the human didn't wake up by the bright light that his own body emitted.

When the shine had faded, there was one human deep asleep in the bed, while a demonic human arose at the bed's right side.

"_Free again!"_ The human Vice hissed in triumph.

"_I knew that I woul__d escape if I tried hard enough."_ The doppelganger from the dream thought, and then turned back towards Virtus' sleeping form.

"_Still keeping up the facade__ of a masked vigilante, huh? Fighting for equality and justice between all species in your own little way."_

"_Even though there's no fun in simply killing you, I don't want you to even suspect that I'm going soft on you."_ Vice thought and prepared his fist to give Virtus a major headache.

But just as the doppelganger was about to throw a punch to the defenceless man's skull, something held his hitting arm stuck in place over his head.

Looking up, Vice saw that a transparent tentacle had wrapped itself around his wrist from behind. Distracted by this, the evil twin didn't see a second tentacle that trapped his mouth, muffling any possible sounds. Vice kicked and tossed in vain as a third tentacle wrapped itself around his waist and overpowered him enough to start pulling him backwards towards whatever the tentacles belonged to.

Vice managed to turn his head around just enough to see that the glasslike tentacles were coming from the top drawer of a desk in the room, pulling him closer to the tight rectangular space.

Vice kicked some more as there was nothing left of the doppelganger but his legs sticking out of the top-drawer. And a bright, white light later, there weren't even any legs left after Virtus' evil twin Vice.

Virtus, who had slept through the whole ordeal, turned over in his sleep, and rested more peacefully than he had a few minutes ago.

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**Author's Notes: **Finally, I did it! Look out, the Sonic Community, a new fan-fic author has arisen. And the final story stats go like this: 800 hits, 20 reviews and one C2 community! Not to bad for a story with two OCs huh?


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